General Motors Denies Plans to Build Assembly Plant in Israel

The General Motors Corporation has denied reports that it plans to build an assembly plant in Israel, according to the Jewish News of Detroit. The corporation said a statement was being released to the press in Beirut by F. J. Weisse, managing director of the Foreign Distributors Division of General Motors on the reports. The Weisse statement cited “statements and reports” in the press of the Middle East that the company “intended to build an assembly plant in Israel or intended to participate financially in an assembly plant project” in Israel.

The statement added: “Such statements and reports have been given without consultation with us or authority from us, and are without foundation. We deny categorically that General Motors is or is intending to build or finance or invest in an assembly plant in Israel.” The initial reports had drawn a warning from the Arab League’s boycott office of a possible blacklisting of GM in Arab countries.